SME Policy Dialogue

SME policy efforts have expanded globally, yet the core challenge is less about policy design and more about whether financial systems are structured to reach firms at scale. Traditional, collateral-based lending models continue to exclude large segments of SMEs, even as digital technologies and alternative data create new pathways for inclusion. Increasingly, the focus is shifting toward data-driven financial ecosystems that leverage AI, digital platforms, and diverse data sources to assess creditworthiness, tailor products to SME cash flows, and reduce costs. At the same time, creating competitive, open systems is critical to avoid data concentration and ensure broad-based access.

This roundtable explores how to translate this shift into practice—focusing on what it takes to move from traditional frameworks to digitally enabled, inclusive financial systems. It will examine how regulatory approaches such as open data frameworks and proportional supervision can support innovation, how local capital markets can be strengthened to sustain SME lending, and how finance can be combined with capacity-building to improve firm outcomes. The objective is to identify how policy frameworks can better align with SME realities—enabling firms to access finance, scale operations, and contribute to jobs, resilience, and economic transformation.